Nuits de Rêve
by Fish
Summary: A static summer night awakens memories from Tenchi's past...


Tenchi Muyo belongs to Pioneer and AIC. I am not profiting from the production   
of this fic. Various quotes and the concept for this fic are taken from a song   
of the same name, a beautiful, intense melody by Moxy Früvous.  
  
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Oú sont passées toutes nos nuits de rêve?  
Aide-moi á les retrouver...  
Tu disais qu't'allais toujours m'aimer.  
  
  
The Emperor of Jurai was surrounded by beauty in his life-his incredible,   
majestic palace with its sprawling, well-trimmed gardens and fountains. He had   
power, more power than he could have imagined, and more wealth than could be   
amassed in ten lifetimes. There were legions of people at his service, willing   
to fetch, cook, scrub, trim, protect, inform, mend or entertain if asked. He   
had spaceships named after him, he knew the goddesses personally, he had his   
face on the Juraian dollar. He had everything.   
  
He had a wife, also. A soft, elegant woman who was luminescent with beauty and   
whose eyes glowed with intelligence and wisdom beyond her age. She was   
sleeping, warm and perfect in the giant canopied bed they shared, dreaming of   
him, radiating love while she slept. He could wake her right now, take her in   
his arms, and she would willingly give herself to him.  
  
Instead, Tenchi Masaki shuffled blindly through the darkened halls of his   
palace. His heavy, crimson bathrobe hung open, the velvet dragging on the floor   
behind him as his bare feet slapped the exquisite marble floor. The summer sky   
was raining outside, but this deep in the palace the outdoors seemed another   
world, distant and unreal. Tenchi prowled towards this other world, slowly and   
thoughtlessly making his way to the third-floor balcony.  
  
Faces flashed through his memory as he fought to block the thoughts from   
progressing in their mad ballet through his mind. He saw images, silhouettes of   
young and nubile women. He struggled with them, grasping at the images and   
pushing them back into inactivity. He fought the hardest against a distant,   
slim, catlike form outlined in moonlight.  
  
Squeezing his eyes closed, Tenchi paused in his catatonic walk and turned his   
face away. He felt so lost tonight, in these dark halls and rooms with their   
golden tapestries and lack of memories. Finally, he managed to wrench the   
visions from his mind's eye. Then the voices came.  
  
There was singing, and laughing, and silly, stupid jokes. There were friendly   
arguments, not-so-friendly arguments, apologies, confessions, and tears. He   
ignored these, too-he had resolved to be happy. He had all that he could want,   
all that he could ever ask for. He pushed forward again through the palace   
corridor, scuffing his feet on the cool tile.  
  
He didn't know why so much of him felt hollow. He had always been an optimistic   
person, set on hope and possibility. Everywhere he looked, he saw opportunities   
for things to improve, for more people to be happy, content. But recently he   
had been experiencing a nagging emptiness, an oppressive hopelessness. Memories   
were manifesting themselves more and more frequently. He usually relished his   
memories, thoughts of his past and friends, but now they carried with them a   
sense of longing, a feeling of having lost something very palpable and real,   
like a limb or a child. Something so completely a part of him that he could   
hardly survive without it.  
  
The passageways flooded with the static of a thunderstorm as Tenchi neared the   
end of the west wing of the palace. A cool breeze that smelled of ozone batted   
his robe back as the enigma of rain crept upon his senses. He heard thunder,   
distant and quiet, like the purring of a giant, sleepy cat. Far-off flickers of   
lighting briefly illuminated the low, uniformly gray clouds.   
  
He stood for a moment in the balcony's doorway, leaning against a gilded door,   
observing. The air was cold, for summer, and his skin tightened and goosebumped   
from the dying wind. Rain had always filled him with a sense of peace, and it   
seemed to satiate his memories for a few moments, he hoped perhaps putting them   
to rest for the evening.   
  
He didn't know how long he stood there, his mind growing numb as this universal   
peace washed through him, but when he broke from his trance the rain had   
stopped. He blinked for a moment, cycling the newly cleaned air through his   
bloodstream, then stepped carefully out onto the balcony.  
  
Cool water had pooled on the tiles, and the bottom of his robe was soaked by the   
time he reached the railing. He leaned against its wet surface, a chill seeping   
through his nightclothes as he stared into the darkness. The moon peered   
briefly from behind a cloud, as if checking if it was safe for it to return.   
Another thin cloud passed over its surface, and then it was naked, hanging low   
and bright in the sky.   
  
His memories stirred in their slumber, responding violently to the new   
moonlight. Everything Tenchi had suppressed rushed in air bubbles to the   
surface, overwhelming him and forcing him to combat a desperate burning in his   
eyes.   
  
He had loved them all.  
  
This was the thought he had been wrestling with the entire night, the one he   
could do nothing about, the one he could not placate. He had made a decision   
out of necessity, and had killed four young women's dreams in the process.   
  
It was a decision that needed to be made, he argued. If he hadn't, he would   
have just prolonged each girl's suffering, as he remained safe in his   
indecision. It was inevitable; he couldn't be with all five of them. In the   
end, he had taken the most logical course. As a result, he now lived a perfect   
life while his soul wasted away beneath his Imperial vestments.   
  
It wasn't that he'd made the wrong choice. He loved Ayeka intensely, gave as   
much of himself to her as he could. He hated to imagine life without her.  
  
The problem was, he could say that about each one of the girls. He'd wanted to   
make each one of them happy, but found no path or possibility for it.   
  
Tenchi turned his face up to the sky, allowing himself to submerge in his   
memories. God, how he missed them, how he wished things could go back to the   
way they were. He wished he could hold them, tell them he still loved them,   
that it was a mistake he hated himself for making, but he'd had no other option.   
He imagined himself with each one of them, imagined what they were doing   
tonight...  
  
His throat tightened as faces and voices reappeared in his mind. He wondered if   
they hated him now, if they cried at night like he did, if they felt as hollow   
and lost as he felt.   
  
Swallowing hard against the ache in his throat, he whispered his apologies to   
the sky as a single tear fell, unnoticed by the rain.   
  
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Feedback to fish_stomp@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading.  
  
  
  



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